AKA: The I-Told-You So Post / Eyes on the Prize

This little project to bring 3 books to publication from final(ish) drafts to finished book in 8 months or so is coming to an end, so let’s start with a quick recap of the initial plan:

The Story So Far…

Late January: Work out a project plan, and hurl in some leeway and breathing space in case things don’t go according to plan

Feb – April: Final revisions of the trilogy

May: build draft paperback editions for my cover artist so he can get the spine thickness right when he starts work in mid-May; the second half of the month is set aside for working with him on this (although it was much quicker, he is that good)

June-July: Build and order initial proof copies of the paperbacks and proof-read all three; submit any corrections so everything’s ready for release. Build kindle versions.

August: probably just take it easy in the run-up to publication because this is totally do-able, but there’s some leeway in the unlikely event things don’t go according to plan

August 23rd: release Angel’s Truth

September: release Angel’s Deceit

October: release Angel’s Knight

What could possibly go wrong? Well, there were a few wrinkles along the way, but because I was planning a staggered release of the trilogy, if I had real problems I could focus on book one, then I’d have a few weeks to work on book 2 before its release in September, and a few more till the final release in October. Well, you can probably tell from the lack of postings to the site that I’ve been a little busy, and the success of Angel’s Truth distracted me just long enough to make things interesting.

Now, the journey’s almost over: Angel’s Truth and Angel’s Deceit have both been released, so it’s time to take a fortifying breath, channel Mo Farah and sprint for the finish. It’s not a done deal – the wheels could totally fall off at any moment – but it’s definitely achievable.

Today I finished compiling my manuscript ready for paperback publication via Amazon’s Createspace. The first time – a few months back – proved to be tricky, but this time I felt much more comfortable in what I was doing. Then I realised that’s because this is my seventh journey through this process this year – seventh in under 6 months, actually. Because I’m releasing a trilogy, that’s three books which need to be formatted for paperback. I did an initial draft run in early May for all three books so that I could give the cover designer an accurate page count (necessary in order to work out the required thickness of the spine).

It was something of a learning process, and I skipped a few steps to make this quicker. I did all the formatting, but in terms of content I left out a few things: I focused on the novel itself and left space for things like the maps, front matter like the copyright page, and acknowledgements and so forth at the back of the novel. So, after I received the completed cover files (and they’re really rather great) I needed to re-format the paperbacks (because I’m exporting from Scrivener rather than building the whole thing in Word), but this time with the front and back matter added in. This, though is where things get out of step: I exported and formatted book one first (taking the total up to 4 paperback builds). While I was waiting for that to arrive, I did the same for book two (taking the total to 5).

I’ve now proofread book one and made final changes to book one. I submitted those (taking the total to 6), and today did the draft proof for the final book of the trilogy, which takes the total up to 7 export-format cycles. I still have the final, final paperbacks to build for books two and three once I’ve finished proofreading and making corrections, so there’ll be a total of nine run-throughs of this whole process. But I’m almost there, and by going through this process several times I’ve managed to get a better grasp on how it all works, and when it’s time for my next book (due some time next year) this will – hopefully – be a smoother, more streamlined process.

The project to self-publish my debut trilogy – something I’ve been informally calling “Project Insanity” – has now passed another milestone. This week I received the final cover art files from my fantastic cover artist, the incredible Tom Edwards. It’s been a great experience watching as the covers took shape, with a theme across the trilogy, and receiving those final files was something of a special moment. Suddenly the whole project now feels so much more real: the last few months editing and revising the manuscripts have been hard work (a rather punishing schedule combined with illness and distinct lack of love for editing) and pressing on with a narrow focus became my method for getting stuff done. A big project like this can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time on the author roundabout, and it’s easy to look up and start worrying about all the other things that need to be done before release day. So I’ve kept my head down, focused on the next chapter and the next and the next. But now, something’s changed.

Now I can see the end and the finished product with those magnificent covers. And it feels like I’m already there, that maybe I can take some time to sit back and bask in my (well, Tom’s in this case) awesomeness: journey’s end, job done, grab a beer. But although this feels like an achievement, the job is still only half done, and with just over three months to go I still have plenty to do: there are copies to order for proofing, some interior formatting that needs to be done, and lots more to keep me busy. Three months and three novels to proof read and correct: still achievable, but Project Insanity is living up to its name. The difference now is that those lovely covers have lifted my spirits and now I’m kind of loving the project. There’ll be a mad sprint at the end, I’m sure, but I’m on track for the moment and looking forward to the next challenges.

My first experience of what I call “Trilogy Fatigue” was while writing what will soon be published as the Angelwar trilogy. I wrote it over three years, my first foray into a trilogy, and my first experience of writing and living with the same group of characters for an extended period. By the early stages of Book 3, trilogy fatigue had set it. I had ideas – lots of shiny ideas – and like a magpie I was drawn to them. But… there was still a story to finish, still a story to tell. Sure, it’s possible to leave it and return a year later, but I was never sure whether the book would suffer for it: would my writing style be vastly different, would I keep finding other projects and leave this unfinished? I took the safe path, and stuck with the manuscript, writing the whole trilogy back to back and I’m glad I did because it felt like so much more of an accomplishment when it was finally complete.

And now, in the midst of final edits and revisions, trilogy fatigue has struck again. Probably, I think, at around the same point in the trilogy. There have been long nights after work, and busy weekends, and now I can feel the early stages of burnout. But I’m into Book 3, on the home strait. Just a little longer and this phase of the project will be complete. And that, I think, will be a good feeling, and the knowledge that at the end of this journey I’ll have 3 books released in paperback and e-book is another incentive. It’s time to have a quiet word with myself, and get back to work because I’m close enough to my initial schedule this whole thing is still possible, still achievable. And if I can do that, I know that accomplishing this will mean so much more to me when I finally see the book and it goes on sale.

Book 1 of the trilogy is almost ready to go. I was expecting it to take a little longer to do final revisions on than books 2 and 3 of the trilogy, but it’s still a disconcerting moment when you return to a manuscript and realise there is more that needs to be improved than you were expecting. I’ve been through the 50+ chapters and the novel is nearly there: there are a couple of bits I’d still like to tinker with, but I’ll be releasing a trilogy later this year and I need all three books in a state where I can give the cover artist an accurate idea of page numbers by mid-May. So, it’s time to move on to Book 2. On the one hand I need to work through more chapters each week, but on the other I’m confident that there are fewer changes required.

In addition to that little problem, I also had a bout of illness over several weeks, further hampering an already hectic schedule. I’ll still be able to make changes once the cover artist has worked his magic, but I’ll need to maintain a near-identical page count, further complicating matters. I still believe I can do it, but I need to step things up a gear, and really make some progress because right now it feels like I’m a long way behind.